GoPro's Fusion spherical camera will put viewers in the action

If you have trouble deciding on the best angle from which to shoot your extreme sports videos, then you might like what GoPro has in the pipeline. This Thursday, the company announced its upcoming Fusion spherical camera. It shoots 360-degree panoramic footage that the viewer can subsequently pan and tilt within, to view the action from different perspectives. According to CEO Nicholas Woodman, it's like having "six GoPro cameras fused into one."

The Fusion shoots at a resolution of 5.2K/30fps – such a high resolution is necessary, as viewers will only be watching one section of the complete spherical video image at any one time. Additionally, utilizing the OverCapture feature, users will be able to pull traditional HD-quality videos or stills from that overall image.

This means that after shooting a video with the Fusion, you could just stick with the one interactive version, or you could also create numerous non-interactive sub-videos that show the action from fixed angles of your choice.

GoPro will initially be putting Fusion cameras in the hands of "professional content creators" as part of a pilot program that will begin this summer (Northern Hemisphere). A limited commercial release is planned for the end of the year, at which time pricing information will be announced. We're betting that the cost will be significantly less than that of the existing GoPro Omni, a professional VR rig that combines six full-size Hero actioncams.

In the meantime, you can click-and-drag your way through the Fusion's demo video below. And should you be happy with a resolution of "just" 4K, you might want to also check out the spherical cameras recently released by the likes of Nikon and Kodak.